The Year’s Best Art

Congratulations to the 30 winners and more than 200 finalists chosen from more than 11,000 entries in The Artist’s Magazine’s 25th annual contest. Given that all the finalists’ works exhibited proficient draftsmanship, deft handling of color and a sophisticated sense of design—the jurors had to look for qualities harder to assess: a risk taken, an emotion expressed—something enthralling and often ineffable. Diverse in media, wide-ranging in content and style, these paintings are sure to impress you, as they impressed the jurors.

We thank our judges for taking their responsibility so seriously and for being scrupulously fair and admirably open-minded. We thank every artist who put his or her work forward.

We know that artists make art because they have to, because they love to, but we also know that artists need to make a living. A career can get a boost from the recognition that a competition as prestigious as ours bestows. A contest is therefore an affirmation as much as it is a celebration. We praise the winners and the finalists and, indeed, every one of you who had the confidence to submit an entry. The race is not always to the swift; it’s important to persevere. After all, who knows what new crop of winners next year will bring?